Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Elaine Donnelly will not gracefully disappear

The Witching Hour at C-SPAN

Elaine Donnelly's preposterously named Center for Military Readiness (CMR) was actually created by Phyllis Schlafly in 1993. Donnelly was the front person but it was Schlafly's enterprise. Its original mission was to keep women from serving in meaningful roles in the United States military. Donnelly has never served in the military. CMR is perhaps best known for its hyperbolic opposition to gays serving openly.

Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, CMR is a tiny organization. 2016 revenues were all of $55,659.

Some years ago, before repeal of DADT, I watched via C-SPAN as Donnelly testified before a congressional subcommittee with all her charts and a retired service member at her side. It was a train wreck — The Onion in video form. Donnelly warned that we would savagely rape other service members, grope people in showers, spread HIV throughout the military, cause massive declines in re-enlistments and bring recruitment to a screeching halt.

Of course none of that has happened. That should have been enough to shut her (deleted) up. But that would require some dignity — some class — on her part. So now she is on a tear about transgender service members with the same nonsensical hyperbole. At least that is what American Family Association — a hate group — is offering on their phony news blog.

According to their Chad Groening (they all really do have porn names):

A conservative military watchdog is making the argument that the U.S. Defense Department should issue only conditional enlistment contracts to "transgender" military recruits.

I suppose that the word transgender is in quotes because … Come to think of it I have no idea why quotation marks surround transgender. More importantly, to call Donnelly a watchdog presupposes that she has some knowledge and special insight. Donnelly exists solely to promote Christian supremacy in the military. That forms her insight.

Later on:

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, says the effort to accommodate transgenders in the military has really complicated normal procedures.

“It's very, very confusing and very detailed,” she tells OneNewsNow. “It is being taken seriously by the Department of Defense because they're under a court order to implement the policies put in place under the Obama administration.”

This is only confusing to people who choose to be confused for religious porpoises. All anyone should care about is whether or not personnel do their job. That's it. The rest is just political and religious gibberish. Normal, thinking people do not find this terribly complicated.

You don't have to take my word for it. The RAND Corporation did a comprehensive study of the issue and they do possess the necessary expertise. According to RAND (in part):

The limited research on the effects of foreign military policies indicates little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness. Commanders noted that the policies had benefits for all service members by creating a more inclusive and diverse force.

Policy changes to open more roles to women and to allow gay and lesbian personnel to serve openly in the U.S. military have similarly had no significant effect on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness.

Note how, at the same time, RAND confirms that all of Donnelly's paranoia and hyperbole over women and gays turned out to be false.

There are 18 countries that permit transgender military service. Those include Israel which probably has the most mission-critical defense system in the world. The United Kingdom has nearly four years of experience with transgender troops. What does Donnelly presume to know that the UK Secretary of State for Defence is ignorant about?